LAUSR

BACKGROUND The pomegranate (Punica granatum) is an ancient perennial plant species of the Punicaceae family. Its seeds are consumed as food or as juice. Previous studies have noted that pomegranate juice encompasses many active compounds with beneficial effects. The main goals of this work were to study the phenolic component of freeze-dried and reconstituted pomegranate juices obtained from 13 pomegranate genotypes growing in Morocco. RESULTS We analyzed several pomegranate juices by means of high-performance liquid chromatography and high-resolution-mass-spectrometry to determine phenolic compounds. 27 bio-phenols, belonging to four different classes (phenolic acids, hydrolyzable tannins, anthocyanins, and flavonoids), have been identified based on their accurate mass measurements and quantified. Some encouraging results were obtained. Even though the freeze-drying process introduced a marked degradation of bio-phenols, substantially lowering their levels in the reconstituted fruit juices, these latter are still rich enough in bio-phenols to compete with some fresh fruit juices. The reconstituted juices obtained by rehydration of the lyophilized material still differ one from another enough to enable a statistical classification based on their polyphenols content. A correlation analysis was applied to the polyphenol data to explore correlations and similarities between genotypes. CONCLUSIONS The results showed that freeze-drying and reconstitution of juices introduce some degradation to the polyphenol content, the overall polyphenolic pattern within the same cultivar, in two different harvesting years, is however maintained, suggesting composition stability of the freeze-dried juices produced in this time span. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.